Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has announced the Department of Defense (DoD) and NextEra Energy have, once again, extended the deadline to reach a mitigation plan on a wind farm along a route of airspace the military uses for training.
NextEra has been authorized to proceed with construction on turbines that have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. However, the Oklahoma Strategic Military Planning Commission (OSMPC) contends the wind farm violates a recent amendment to the Wind Energy Development Act. The changes to the law require a determination by the federal government that planned wind turbine construction has no military impact, or the company must have an approved mitigation plan from the DoD, before a wind farm is constructed or expanded, explains Hunter.
Construction on the wind farm, located west of Hinton, was stopped in October after NextEra and the OSMPC agreed to work on a mitigation plan with the DoD to resolve the issue. The new deadline is next Monday, Dec. 10. The previous deadline was Nov. 12, following another extended deadline of Oct. 29.
The attorney general is representing the OSMPC in the negotiations.
